I’ve seen a number of counties and seats that form names, but I believed Cortez was the first time I’ve seen two connected names put together that are related historically but did not belong to the same person (I was wrong, thanks to Thomas Gilmer and Abel Upshur). However, putting these two names together seemed both ironic and wrong considering their history together. But who am I to say anything about the inertia of history? At the same time, I couldn’t help but think that the names had been specifically chosen as some kind of reminder to the Navajo population. The image of a Spaniard strangling a Native monarch would make a powerful symbol. Of course, I’m not the one to analyze that. I leave that as an exercise for the author of Geocaching While Navajo. As for the courthouse, despite the round section that I assume is a nod to Native design, I’m not in love with it as it feels to modern and uninspired to be much more than a modern office building, I suspect there’s an older courthouse somewhere in town, but I wasn’t looking to hunt it down at the moment.
My original intention for a cache was probably quite obvious to anyone following a map. Seeing as Montezuma County is the southwesternmost county in Colorado, within it resides the Colorado Virtual at Four Corners. I had first though about going to Four Corners back in Aztec, but it was closed during Covid and the chance to return had not come up since. Unfortunately, I couldn’t determine if it was open. All the websites, especially the Navajo Nation website, said it was closed on major holidays, and I figured the Fourth of July qualified. Instead, I went ahead and found an LPC in the middle of town dedicated to a former council member and began to head off for…
Wait. Let me check something…
When you pull up a location in Google Maps (which I was using for my routing) that has hours of operation, said hours usually display along with notification of being open or closed. According to Maps, it was not only open, but it stated that the hours were specifically stated for the Fourth! It was gonna cost me an hour, but it would be an hour well spent! I turned slightly south and drove.
Welcome to Four Corners, the place where four states meet. As better surveying and border detection techniques have evolved, the actual spot has moved, but court cases over the years have upheld cases based on the location of Four Corners, so it is at a minimum the legal place where four states meet. The Navajo Nation runs the site, and I was happy to give the old Navajo lady my card, pay the seven dollars, and park. There were stalls on all four sides of the square, but only a few of them were occupied, some selling jewelry, other selling trinkets and postcards. I took a walk around to see the state specific stones describing the history and feeling for the site and then got in line with everyone else to do the real deal. For a minute, I didn’t know if I would actually make it up there. An large, mixed Indian family (that’s India Indian, not Native American Indian) took an interminably long amount of time taking photos: first one family group, then their kids, then the parents; a second family group, their kids, and then the parents; the third group, etc.; and so on until all five families had taken their separate photos and then collective photos began: all the kids, all the adults, all the kids with shades on, all the men with shades… Eventually, an Indian (also as in India) lady behind me in line yelled at them to hurry up. Finally, everyone in the great extended clan finished their posing and the line moved forward. The two parties in front of me moved fairly quickly, probably in memory of their long wait, photographing their feet standing on the point between four states. Finally, I was up. I wasted no time. The wait allowed me to consider my choices, so I put my trusty umbrella to good use. And once that was done, I enlisted someone from the crowd to photograph me. There were bursts of laughter as I splayed myself across the great brass plate, each limb in another state. I couldn’t imagine other people hadn’t thought of doing it themselves, but it might not have been a cool enough position to be in. I, however, am long since through being cool.
I only wish I had a drone or something with which to better position my shot, but one takes what one can get in the far reaches of Colorado.
So, for my official cache for Montezuma County? Seeing as Montezuma County is the southwesternmost county in Colorado, my official cache for the county is the Colorado Virtual at the Four Corners monument! I had to wait to log it because there was no cell service out there. I didn’t get the Adventure Labs out there for the same reason; they were sequential so I couldn’t just open them all and get to them later, but I could live with that. And with all that done, I began a drive north to my next destination…
Geocaching While Black 